Mr. Gaga

Taking advantage of the cinema program of 9th Dance Festival of Gdańsk in the Klub Zak (Poland), I went to the screening of the documentary film “Mr. Gaga“.

I have some friends abroad that recommended me this film, but unfortunately, I couldn’t find it on the Spanish cinemas… Because this film has never been released in Spain.

So since I had the opportunity to watch it and in the big screen, I bought a ticket.

Mr. Gaga

Ohad Naharin is an Israeli contemporary dancer, choreographer and dance company artistic director.

During the time he was directing and teaching at the Batsheva Company, he developed Gaga, a movement language and pedagogy that nowadays characterizes​ Israeli contemporary dance.

A practice that resists codification and emphasizes the practitioner’s somatic experience, Gaga is importantly labeled a movement language rather than a movement “technique”. Many have noted that Gaga classes consist of a teacher leading dancers through an improvisational practice that is based around of a series of images described by the teacher. Naharin explains that such a practice is meant to provide a framework or a “safety net” for the dancers to use to “move beyond familiar limits”. The descriptions that are used to guide the dancers through the improvisation are intended to help the dancer initiate and express movement in unique ways from parts of the body that tend to be ignored in other dance techniques.

The documentary

This film has been launched for first time in 2015, in Jerusalem Film Festival. Generally, all of its releases in different countries have been in film festivals until now. So far this year 2017, it has been released in some countries as USA, Poland, Canada, Brazil and Finland. In Spain, it has not been released yet.

In a 90 minutes film, the Heymann brothers’ production shows us the career of this choreographer: his beginnings and his continuation in the dance world.

From my point of view, I liked the film and I recommend to watch it. However, I think there are some events that maybe have been exaggerated and the final is a bit abrupt. Anyway, Naharin’s voice makes you keep your attention on the screen and the dance classes and moving images are very interesting.
.
.